Bahrain Div 1 post race

PrestoGP Veteran

Race 11
The first stint was full of adrenalin. I had Peter, Daniel, David, Dmitry, Vince and Sean to fight with. Had hoped to follow you guys thru the second stint but that didn't happen. Stint 2, a lonely journey most of the time.
This was a fun race on a nicely flowing track, but it's this unfortunate incident that makes me sad.
The chase started on lap 2 and we lost and gained to each other back and forth until lap 12. There was no possibility for me to come in position for an overtake, so I just followed David around. I thought I had full control and good margins in T1 but it wasn't enough. I hit you from behind. I am very sorry David, I wish it could be undone.

The engine feels powerless under 1500rpm and the Hansson Honda engineers has promised to come up with some lo rev torque in time for next race.

Thanks to all participants and grats to point winners!
See you in Melbourne.

First off all i would like to apologize to Dmitry Slinetov, he got to be victim of my computer crash on lap 36. My computer started sturrering and then froze, i got back some seconds later, but didnt realize i blocked him until i saw the replay.
Again im sorry Dmitry

Then grats to the podium and all the finishers.

The Race. I had a good start, going from 13th 11th into turn 1, was chasing David Turnbull until the last turn, there i come to close into the turn, so i had to stear out in the gravel, enden up in the last of line. From there on, not much to say, as i just didnt drive impressive. But i got home in 12th place even with the scares of freezes.

PrestoGP Veteran

dont worry about it Valter, theres nothing can be done about it, i know you didnt mean it, it did ruin my race but also so did the pits kicking me out twice when i tried to fix it, anyhoo no worrys, i hung on till the end tried to be as courtious as possible to the front guys lapping me, good race all .

I had a lot of fun, as usual. The first 18 laps were just great. I was chasing a bunch a cars and then Vincenzo for maybe 10 laps. Much fun.

Then I got wide dropping a rear into the sand and spun it around. Dang.! Another spin leaving the pits didn't help either. Double dang! From there it was more of a drive to the line.

I did try to release Sean once from having to following me, however, he went wide on the last corner and gave the position back to me. Sorry Sean. It would not have been a problem to let you by to unlap yourself again. I was never quite sure what to do after we swapped positions back ["did you give track position back to me because of the Blue Flag?" I thought to myself], however, I did want to keep chasing Jim and co. ahead of me in case an opportunity presented itself.

9th place to finish. Better than I deserved due to other drivers tech problems and also passing Andy on the final lap seemed odd.

PrestoGP Veteran

The race was good tonight, much more interesting than that dull procession on Sunday:biggrin:

Q, went OK ish, no where near my best but good enough for a top ten start, three times I was 0.5 up and lost it all in S3

R, got away OK and through turn 1 with ease, then set about chasing Martin and Rune, got myself up to 4th.

Then came my pit stop, whist heading out of the last turn on to the straight I looked down at my menu for a second, when I looked up I was heading straight for the end of the pit wall at full chat, I hit the brakes and went right, missed it but unfortunately crossed the white line at about 100mph sideways and brushed the wall, textbook stuff!, so that got me an S n G:frown:

came back out 9th, caught up with Martin again and passed him as he made a mistake then handed the place back by doing the same thing on the next lap

Then it started to get interesting, by lap 35 I had hardly any brakes left and my rear tyres were shot to bits, I could see martin in front was also struggling a bit, it was like driving on ice, just sliding and drifting all over the place, I spun twice, then on the last lap I lucked into two places as martin had an off and my team mate Andy was having major brake problems also (and a freeze? maybe?)

But it was all good experience and great fun, I've managed to finish in the points again and F1 is starting to feel a bit more natural

From where I was sat the standard of driving was excellent as far as I could see.

Congratulation to Chris for great drive and to all finishers and to my Team mate Tim for posting a great qualy lap, i am pretty sure he would have been with us on the podium if it was not for his bad luck..

Q, did not go well as planned, I was around 0.5s down on my PB , i knew i could do better but that perfect lap somehow did not happen , after all P6 was a good place on the grid.

R, 2nd was a great result today…with an average start, I lost a position to Andy, then i gained back couple of positions because of some drivers issues with their computers including my team mate Tim; it does not feel quite right to gain positions this way honestly…after that i had some good fun chasing Andy for 2nd, i tried to put some pressure on him to do a mistake but his driving was just great :thumbup:, then few laps later he run wide in T1 , that allowed me to slip through to 2nd.

My race pace was not so impressive, i am not sure if the rest were experiencing the same but my car felt very light and somehow lacking grip compared to what the car used to behave and deliver on the practice race server the day before," both servers should deliver the same race data right!!?", I could not push the way I used to and was the whole race fighting the steering wheel to keep that monster on track with the right speed..lol.. So I am a bit surprised to find myself increasing the gap to the rest and at the same time struggling to close the gap to Chris :tongue:.

My race.
Podium is an excellent result!
Qualification - just 10th, T1 - 17th!
I felt confident and were planning to do a long race on the driveable car. The race had started and I could move ahead until the terrible freeze on Lap11. Fortunately I "woke up" just in gravel, not in a wall. And from then I had to start again from the last rows. There was a close battle ahead of me, so the whole group was going rather slow.
I had managed to move ahead and by the middle of the race I've caught up Rune. It's the second season in which we have close battles wheel-to-wheel in almost every race.:biggrin:
In this race Ross Brawn appeared in my pits, and the earlier pit-stop let me pass Rune and also Martin. Because of Jim's penalty I took 4th position after the pit-stops, and I were very satisfied.
Andy was 23secs ahead of me. So I decided to keep high temp and concentration, and save my tyres. I've managed to do it, and was catching up Andy little by little.
No problem Per Andersen! (My PC also needs a lobotomy:biggrin. It was funny to see your car again ahead of me 1sec before braking even I've left the trajectory. And the justice is present, because I did not get any failures and did not lose the position. I think that was because of contact with frozen ghost. The only disappointing thing in that situation was that I've lost some time and could not catch Andy anymore. But finally Andy was in trouble, and I finished in 3rd position!
This excellent result is my racing engineer's merit! I hope to be closer to the leaders in next races!
Thx.
JT

Felt a bit rusty since the last laps I've done were on saturday in fpws. No time to pracitce because of exams, but I wanted to race even though I had one the day after. These races are so fun

Q: slow as usuall, but at least managed to equal my best. 14:th

R: Ok off the line and was on the inside but lost some momentum in T1 as I didn't want to stick my nose on the inside and braked instead. The first stint was really fun with lots of battles with Valter, Vincenzo, Peter, Dmitry, (probably forgetting someone). Can't describe them all, watch the replay instead :wink:. Clean, fair and exciting racing by all :thumbup:

But I made a couple of mistakes which I'm not happy about. Ran wide after the sweeping right hander and re-entered the track in not a perfect manner, but no harm. I braked too late following Valter in t8 (?) and spun. The most comical one came when I had a run on Valter approaching T1 and moved to the inside but missed my brake point by a mile and went straight ahead. When I watched it on the replay from my point of view I move to the right in such a way that the distance sign stay completly hidden behind Valters car. So that's why I missed it

Later the situation stabilised and I after the pits have been done I was in 8:th a couple of secands behind Vincenzo. I pushed and got into a good rythym and made quick (for me) and stabile laps. It was rewarding to see the distance getting slowly smaller. But it is sooo hard to catch him. Fast and no mistakes at all. :thumbup:

It got down to under 1,5 secs at around lap 30 but then I lost it. A red car came up behind me but I didn't realise I was about to be lapped untill I got the blue flag before turn 5. I stayed to the left in the right hander but too much and went off track and lost a bunch of seconds. Clumbsy by me. After that I dind't feel quite confident in the car and the tires got worse towards the end but I finished in 6:th, mostly due to others missfortune.

A good race with some fun battles, but with some misses. In the end a mighty fine result.

The racestart went very well, managed to get in 5th position.
Few turns further on the first lap Sean spun his car wich put me in 4th.
After that i was behind Mark, who was a tiny bit quicker than me but due to his LC i got in 3th.
At this point i got a fast Anthony on my tail, i managed to keep in front of him for some laps but than i ran wide
in T1 and he got past.
I was in 4th position untill Tim LC, wich put me back in 3th place.
From there on i was driving consistant at a good pace increasing the gap to the guys behind me.
My pitstop was ok, lost some time but that wasen't a problem.
And than on lap 37 disaster striked, my brakes started to fail.
First right front brake and a few turns later the left one too.
Only had rear brake at that point, with still 3 laps to go.
Car kept spinning out of control when i touched the brakes.
One of my best F1 races turned into a nightmare at the end.
Had to let allot of guys pass, wich put me in p10 at the checkered flag.
Now i (sort off) can imagine how Vettel felt in Bahrein.

I'm sorry for the guys that LC, that sucks bigtime too.

Grats to Chris, Anthony an Dmitry, and also my teammate Jim who finished in front of me (second time in a row, mate)

PrestoGP Veteran

Unlucky again i spun on lap 1 f wing off supsension damage so race over but thought id finish anyway had good time following cars that had lapped me tryin to stay as close as possible at times and fresh set of rubber to try for fastest lap at the end. cyas melbourne.
Grats podium !

PrestoGP Veteran

started 11th on the grid after a decent qualifying, miles from my best but i was happy with what i got.

the race started and i gained 1 position by t1 so i was 10th,and i think someone spun out so i moved up to 9th position by the end of lap 1, from there on it was cruising with about the same gap infront and behind for alot of laps,on lap 12 it all caved in when on the straight coming to t1 Valter underbroke and went right into the rear of my car, my rear suspension was damaged and the car felt like a big jobbie to drive so i tried to hang in till i could get to the pits, i called them very quickly but when i arrived they kicked me out with a broken car, so i soldiered on and tried again on the next lap, and again it kicked me out, at this point steam was coming from my ears and im shouting quite a bit, so away i go again for another lap of wrecked car, finally on lap 15 the pits were ready for me, i fixed damage, put on a set of medium tyres, filled up the car so i could go till the end of the race and went for it, i couldnt gain anything at this point i was wayyyy behind, i just tried to get to grips with the car some more, i moved over in plenty of time for anyone who was lapping me and didnt have any problems with anyone except Valter but it was an accident, so sh*t happens and we move on no worries Valter

onto cutting, i had 4 cuts in the 37 laps that i managed, none of them gained me time as can be seen from the laptime on those laps, 3 of them at t1 were i just turned in way too early and 1 at the tight left were i again turned in too early.